Issue with Rockettheme template

Issue with Rockettheme template

First of all ... wow ... this module really has great potential. I especially love the option to show modules depending on which sections & categories are shown in the main content area. This is a major step towards making news oriented sites that need a different layout once users click to view articles...

As I'm writing I see the MetaModPro advertisement - so maybe its a common issue - but in the RocketTheme template Terrantribune, MetaMod shows a blank module when php rules don't apply.

Re: Issue with Rockettheme template

Hi Talklan,

yes, this is a design limitation of the basic MetaMod module. A Joomla module cannot completely turn itself "off" dynamically, so the best you can do (without MetaMod Pro) is to make it produce as little output as possible, don't have the title showing, and work with your CSS rules and template code to try to work around it.

MetaMod Pro takes a different approach to solve the problem. You set up the modules with MetaMod as usual, but the MetaMod Pro plugin works behind the scenes to completely remove the MetaMod module from the list of modules displayed (unless it has any direct HTML output of its own). Any modules that MetaMod includes are therefore placed onto the page without being "inside" the MetaMod, which also helps with any CSS issues caused by the modules-inside-module design.

There are lots of templates out there that don't actually have a problem with empty modules "reserving space", but most of the modern ones do (depending on which module position you are using). Left and Right module positions most often have this issue.